Is tough guy Carlyle getting soft?
In his second stint with Anaheim, the mercurial coach has learned to pick his battles
It used to be like lighting the fuse to a bomb.
Ask coach Randy Carlyle about his starting goalie for any NHL game — or any crease conundrum and assessment of his puck stoppers — and the roll of the eyes was often followed by an icy glare that would freeze your microphone. However, those edges have supposedly softened and humour is even injected into his fencing with the media.
What’s going on here? Who is this guy?
“I’m much easier to get along with,” the 60-year-old Carlyle said with a chuckle. “Hey, I’m in La-La Land. Of course, you change as you get older. Things that you were so hard and fast about before probably aren’t so important now.
“The one thing you learn is the more experience you have — and the more things you do — is that you’re here to win the war and not here to fight every battle. It’s not a war, but that’s just a term I use. You’re a salesman. You have to sell your product line and see what this group is willing to absorb.
“I look at (Ryan) Kesler and (Kevin) Bieksa. I had them as young players in Manitoba in the lockout years (2004-05) and they played very well for me. I look at them with respect because they’ve earned their opportunities and they’re true pros. I’m impressed that Kesler has been able to maintain that through the course of time and they’re both pretty serious about the game.
“They help sell your program, for sure.”
When the coaching carousel stopped spinning in Anaheim last June, the team gave Carlyle a second chance to coach the Ducks as a successor to the fired Bruce Boudreau. His pedigree of guiding the franchise to a 2007 Stanley Cup championship — and an ability to match line deployment wits with his peers — gave him the nod over Utica Comets coach Travis Green.
And when you have a veteran core in your corner, even lobbying to get you the gig, you’re going to get it.
The Pacific Division race for playoff positions was going to tighten up and there had to be a firm-but-fair guy behind the bench to get the buyin from the veterans who had to sell it to six new roster faces.
Maybe that’s why Carlyle didn’t lose it on Dec. 4 when the Ducks were demolished 8-3 in Calgary in the second half of back-to-back games. But he did point out flaws and expected them to be immediately corrected. And they were.
“He brings accountability,” said Kesler. “He’s a very detailed-oriented coach and even our practices are longer this year. We work on faceoffs and systems all the time and I think the biggest thing is that everybody is on the same page.”
The due diligence in the circle led to the Ducks leading the league in faceoff percentage at one point and rating fourth on the penalty kill, because their faceoff efficiency led to good puck-possession and zone numbers.
But it’s more than that. You learn more from losing, and missing the playoffs twice in four years behind a young Toronto bench meant Carlyle had to grow as much as his players.
“Even in the middle of the period, he’ll make adjustments, and he’s good at relaying that message so that everybody understands it,” said Kesler.
Bieksa welcomed Carlyle for familiarity and hopefully stability behind the bench. The last thing you want to do at age 35 — with another year left on his contract — is having a feeling-out process with a coach and systems. You want it to be seamless.
After all, in the last five years, Bieksa’s coaches have been Carlyle, Boudreau, Willie Desjardins, John Tortorella and Alain Vigneault.
“It’s been pretty good and an easy adjustment because he’s a teacher who likes to coach,” said Bieksa. “And he has mellowed, but that could last until the next loss. But as far as outbursts, he’s been pretty good. The guys don’t know how good they have it — especially the young guys.”
Alex Burrows was 23 when an NHL lockout paved the way for the Moose to ice a formidable AHL team that went 44-26-0-10 and advanced to the Western Conference final.
Burrows had nine goals and 107 penalty minutes to start cementing his pro image as a grinder and agitator — much to the delight of Carlyle, who racked up 1,400 career penalty minutes in 1,055 games.
“He was so demanding. I don’t think I had a day off all year,” said Burrows. “And you need that as a young guy — direction. There was no grey area. Everything was black and white, and I really liked that. He was fair, he managed his bench well and he loved the line-matching.
“There was structure and a plan for every faceoff on where the puck would land.”